Monday, January 28, 2013

From my novel PANCHO LAND: A map of the 47 urban "Quarantine Zones" where U.S. Hispanics are interned.

An excerpt from PANCHO LAND:

As the bus emerged from the empty man-made canyons of
downtown Los Angeles, the first sight of their destination finally came into
view: the graffiti-covered concrete wall marking the border of Quarantine Zone
B. The high wall loomed malevolently above the paved banks of the Los Angeles
River beyond the expanse of a long-abandoned railroad yard. The upper floors of
a few multi-story buildings rose above the razor-sharp concertina wire atop the
wall.

The bus slowed to a crawl then resumed normal speed as
they passed a checkpoint manned by heavily armed men in brown wide-brimmed
hats. They were crossing the last line of the government’s defenses around the
zone.

My novels in brief

America Libre,House Dividedand Pancho Land imagine a nightmarish, not-too-distant future when tensions between Hispanic separatists and Anglo supremacists ignite an ethnic conflict that leads to an armed insurrection seeking to redraw the borders of the United States. A cautionary tale, The Class H Trilogy is a wake-up call to the dangers of bigotry and extremism in a growing ethnic gulf.

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When I began writing America Libre in 2004, some thought the book’s premise was unrealistic. An uprising by Hispanics? The idea seemed far-fetched, they said. Today, the skeptics are no longer so certain. I posed the nightmare scenario of America Libre as a wake up call to the dangers of extremism - on all sides of this explosive issue. Hispanic immigration is a hotly debated topic today. Yet it is only the tip of the iceberg. Over the next decade, three other factors will prove equally significant. READ MORE